Multitudes of career climbing Managers are absolutely obsessed with the mentation of securing the Credit for an Idea. These grasping self-image constructors maneuver situations, twist conversations, compose politics, and employ devious tactics, to insure they receive the credit “they deserve”; all in the name of their own fair play. They are convinced and believe their ideas are uniquely exceptional to the pool of creative

Taking Credit for Ideas

thought and without their brilliant sentiments the organization would be immovable in its own mire. At best they are braggarts; at worst self-centered egotist set on marginalizing everyone around them. Focused on “scoring points” as their primary “get ahead” strategy they calculate moves like a Chess master purposefully moving pieces into play. Their intent of gaining the advantage and capture of “credit for the idea” sets up a win-lose game in which they must prevail.

These lustful credit abductors often become boisterous and obnoxious as they brag about the origin of their thought. They insist the whole world fathom and concede the origination and proprietorship of their idea, so there will be no doubt who should receive the credit for it.

If the idea is fruitfully implemented, they crave the need to thrust themselves out front of the Team in an attempt to claim a personal victory. When their boss gets credit for an idea’s successful execution, the credit monger feels slighted, undermined, and even pilfered. Without their due credit rancor builds manifesting a bitter victim, bent getting even. This “Go or No Go” Strategy based on credit redemption results in a half accomplished agenda at best.

These credit monger Managers promote their ideas at every turn for one primary reason. If the idea works out, they expect recognition and praise showered upon them as an individual. They expect their future value to increase over those around them as they take one more step up the ladder of success. After all, without their idea, wouldn’t everyone else have lingered lost and hopeless? Of course, should the idea fail they

Taking the Credit

quickly fade into the background orphaning the failure as unequivocally and neatly as possible.

So what is the debauchery with a little “blowing your own horn” and taking credit for a legitimate idea. After all, there is undoubtedly nothing wrong with producing breakthrough ideas. It is an imperative portion of every Leader’s trade to do precisely this – create great ideas. Much of a Manager’s success will be determined not only by his ability to generate great ideas, but his capacity to effectively implement them with his Team and meet the organization’s goals. However, when an idea’s path and strategy is manipulated and cajoled in an effort to attain the net gain of getting credit for it, a Manager has stopped thinking about what is best for the company and has selfishly focused on his own pride.

Leaders advance their position, improve their stature, and fortify their power base through the operative implementation of ideas. It is the idea’s results that ultimately matters. Strong and effective Leaders realize the price paid for focusing on “getting the credit” is too high to pay. Taking credit is the #1 obstacle to getting things done.

Once rewards are secured to idea creation two things begin to happen. First, people begin to pick and choose the ideas they put forth based on their calculated assessment of their own self-interest moving forward. This premeditation stunts creativity, shuts down brainstorming, and undermines collaborative efforts. Secondly, they arise to shoot down and kill the ideas of others. Why should they work hard on another’s idea if the glory only goes to the originator?

As a Leader you must focus yourself and your Team on the execution of ideas and the accomplishment of goals if you want true enduring recognition and success. You must be willing to forgo the boasting and the “pats on the back” for your great ideas and shift the focus continually to the efforts of the Team’s accomplishments

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit”.

President Harry S. Truman

President Harry Truman

The speediest and most assured method to advance momentum for an idea is to “give the credit away”! Allowing people to think something was their idea, is one of the most effective tactics for the efficacious flight of a plan. When you permit people to share in the creation of an idea, they become personally invested in its success; their desire and personal need to see the idea prosper increases exponentially. As a Leader, if you can help 10 different people believe they each contributed to the development (even a small part) of a great idea; you will have generated an exceptionally motivated and driven Team set on triumphing over their objective. If you are capable of duplicating this scenario over and over again, your Team will catapult itself to the top of the organization. At that point there will be enough credit and recognition for all.

One of the common grievances, I mentioned above, is from Managers who mind their bosses taking credit for their ideas. Exasperation over this occurrence is a fool’s folly. Even the most reckless instances of abuse, such as a boss putting his name on a paper you have created, are losing battles. Some so called manager advice columnist tend to prescribe two possible paths of action to console the affronted, the first being confrontation and the second a withdrawal of future ideas. They are wrong. Both pieces of advice are guaranteed to stop your career dead in its tracks. The confrontation will certainly result in your boss acknowledging the idea was yours. But the credit will be accompanied with the justification that he either verbally passed on your contribution or the explanation that as part of his Team, “it is your job to provide ideas for him” (a stance I wouldn’t disagree with). Either way, you have built resentment with your boss. Having been called a thief and a cheat, he will surely move you to the back of the pack. Withholding ideas fodders the deluded dream that your boss will fall flat on his face without your great ideas. Although this may feel virtuous to your ego temporarily, in the long run it is a self-destructive unfulfilling choice. By withholding your ideas, you will disengage yourself, flounder and certainly move yourself to the back of the pack.

Common Complaint - Boss Steals Ideas

As to others who steal your ideas, never let someone’s bad behavior compromise your values. You should give your company 100% effort and commitment (for your own sake). The cream usually rises to the top, if not you should leave, knowing you gave it your all, and find another opportunity. Turning in a less than “Your Personal Best” to satisfy a grievance just devalues you as an individual. Good Leaders can always spot the stars in their organization. Don’t take the shine off of your own star by sacrificing your Commitment to Personal Quality for anyone. You have only one person who is going to look back at you in the mirror at the end of the day. How did he do?

Great Leaders know that ideas are communal property. Mutual creation produces an atmosphere and expectation from each member of the Team to bring their full experience, creativity, and intellect, to every challenge and openly contribute to the exchange of progressive ideas. All ideas should be given value and freedom, but not significance in their premature state. The terribly bad ones help us choose the right course to follow through elimination. And the brilliant ones are only scratches on the whiteboard until someone executes them into a reality. Leaders must use their best wisdom in sorting out the bad and good ideas as they determining which ones to act upon. From there, they must focus the Team’s commitment and efforts on the accomplishment of the idea regardless of its origin.

Once an idea is implemented and becomes a reality, it is time to recognize and thank its creators. Without the original thoughts of the creative and unique idea nothing would have changed. But at the same time, a respected and effective Leader will also cheer and praise the Team that brought the idea home.

Giving the credit away is not about modesty and humility. It is the effectual tactic of a Leader who wants to Get Things Done! Ideas without implementation are frivolous leaps of fantasy. The more credit a Leader attempts to ingest for ideas, the more he disenfranchises his entire Team. Gaining participation from the Team in the creation and rewards of a great idea not only procures their commitment, it elevates their passion. A Street Smart Leader understands the ultimate supremacy of a passionate, driven, and rewarded A-Team will get things done and accelerate his career far more than taking credit for ideas ever could.

As I collect with other Business Leaders in these hope motivated days, it is inevitable the discourse will magnetically be pulled towards inquiries of each other’s confidence of the

Busy People

ensuing market potency. “What are you seeing out there? How is your business doing right now? How are you feeling about the next several months?” With the unrelenting nonexistence of visibility in the market, Leaders are imploring for reassurance that their yearning to “push on” is justified and affirmed by those Leaders adjoining them. More often than not, these interlopes turn towards an interchange of a reciprocally experienced surge of activity. “Wow, we are really busy right now.” “We are so busy too. I’m thinking of hiring.” “I am busier than I have been in the last three years. Things are looking up.”

Everyone is busy these days! Are you busy too? Doesn’t it feel wonderful? It shouldn’t!

In recent years Leaders have travailed arenas filled with anxieties of desolate survival where it appeared there might not be enough activity to keep their doors open. “Busy” comes like rain from the heavens to fill these drought vacant caldrons of worry. I will ask again, “Does it feel good?” If your answer is affirmative, you may have swallowed the temptress of non-productivity. “Busy” is worthless. It is a trap which takes a Leader’s eye off the ball. At best, busy “by itself” can only mean one thing. Costs are likely to be increasing.

Busy is typically a young manager’s trap; a no-man’s wasteland where the act of being busy camouflages unproductive results and the inability to reach goals. Their teams routinely run up against every deadline with only seconds to spare often creating a work product of lesser quality. The call of this naiveté is usually to hire more people or reduce demands. Busy does not equate with your team working harder; it certainly does not denote it is working smarter. It only proposes that there is “activity” which is expanding to meet the time available.

The Busy Trap

As a Leader today, regardless of your standing, you must combat the Busy Trap. You must avoid the temptation of the euphoric feeling that is created by witnessing the hustle and bustle of your team’s activity. Leaders must resist the pride-felt utterances of impressing their bosses and peers with how busy they are. They must further resist those feel-good “pat on the backs” to their teams with compliments of how they made it “just in time”. In today’s challenge to move forward, being busy just doesn’t count.

“It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

This interesting statement was made by Cyril Northcote Parkinson, the famous British historian and author, in 1955 – first appearing as the opening line in an article for The Economist and later becoming the focus of one of Parkinson’s books, Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress.

C. Northcote Parkinson

Parkinson had studied the British Government noting that regardless of the shrinkage of work due to the Empires retraction, government continued to grow by 5-7% per year “irrespective of any variation in the amount of work (if any) to be done.”

Parkinson’s Law – work expands to fill the time available for its completion – means that if you give yourself a month to complete a one week assignment, then (psychologically speaking) the task will increase in complexity and become more daunting so as to fill that month. It may not even fill the extra time with more work, but just stress and tension about having to get it done. And often tasks are procrastinated until the last minute, all the while people remain ostensibly busy pontificating the progress they are making.

We all know the drill when we have too much time to complete a task. We tend to slack off until the task becomes urgent. Then, when meeting the deadline becomes imminently impossible, we become super-productive and miraculously pull it off — getting the job done just in time. Does your team conclude essential projects at the last minute with a frantic fury of activity and emotion which drives the organization into chaos? Instead of recognizing your team’s valor, you should examine the reality that they have more than likely expanded the work to meet the deadline.

As we grasp for restoration of profitability, growth and prosperity during these changing economic times, it is necessary for Leaders to preserve the focus on productivity in the proficient attainment of goals. Leaders must have a system of measurements to determine if there are real gains in productivity before increasing cost structures. They must scrutinize with a skeptic’s evaluation the true efficiency and effectiveness of their teams performance before entertaining the rookie manager’s mistakes of adding costs or increasing time as a solution.

Remember, during the economic slow-down your team became normalized at running 35 mph. As they ramp up to competitive “100mph performance” levels they are bound to feel out of control. Good Leaders will stay steady while demanding and inspiring increased performance. Tight time limits and deadlines force your brain to figure out ways to get tasks done in the time available. By assigning the right amount of time to a task, we gain back more time and the task will reduce in complexity to its natural state. By increasing the work of an apparently busy team, you condense the time available for each task and improve key elements of your future success – Creativity and Productivity!

If you determine your team has “truly” become “busy”, without increased productivity or performance gains, it is time to revisit the effectiveness of your strategies. Are you spending your team’s time pursuing winning situations? Are you picking the right battles? Do they have the necessary support? Are goals clearly understood? Are bureaucratic policies and people strangling progress? These types of impediments can easily cause a team to be unproductive and busy at the same time.

One reason Parkinson’s Law is so prevalent, especially in corporations, is that Leaders have settled for the C-Team. These C- Players question why they should improve productivity only to be given more work. Rather than possess the Values of Excellence and Quality they fill their heads with degenerative thoughts of, “Soon as I finish, they’ll just give me more work.” Or “If I’m too fast they will just bring the deadline forward next time!”

If you are hiring, building, and rewarding your A-Team appropriately, you will see these barriers of negativity disappear from your team. Keep your team focused on the prize and they will soar above these questionable distractions. A-Players want to do more and be more. They wish to excel and out-perform others, especially the competition. If you sense resistance to productivity gains from someone on your team, it is time to look for their replacement.

As a Leader you will be pressured and tempted to increase costs and headcount as your business grows. Push back. Push back hard! One of my current mentors, Scott Lazarus, is known to say, “If you want something done, give it to a person who is already busy.” Scott understands that productive people will always find a way to get more done and they thrive on the challenge. Leaders must prepare for the growth. Street Smart Leaders must exhaust Creativity and Productivity as the crucial tools for turning growth into bottom-line profitability.

Just for fun – Here are other Parkinson Law offshoots:

Expenditures rise to meet income.

The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done.

(This is Part II of a three part series on the Performance Plus Planning System which focuses on the Four P’s – Plan, Platform, Process, People, to create synergistic accountable organizations.)

Each of the architectural elements plotted below warrant their own detailed explanations, however, in this article I am attempting to provide only the “framework” to build a prosperous integrated business operation capable of achieving Next Level Accountability.

THE PLAN

Building an impenetrable organizational architecture originates with the development of the Plan. The construction of a cohesive interconnected Plan establishes the underpinning of a framework which all future decisions

Planning

can be grounded upon. With a robust and resilient Plan an organization can productively move forward toward the attainment of innovative and sophisticated goals. With the exception of the “lucky few”, every successful business I have ever known has inaugurated its growth cycles and built future opulence through an unswerving devoutly managed Planning Process.

Leaders must collaborate with their A-Teams to cultivate a comprehensive Plan so the organization comprehends why it is in business in the first place. Establishing a Vision pinpoints what the business “will be” and what it should be endeavoring to deliver to the marketplace. Next, a sturdy Strategy should be created to provide a business track that is clear and provides significance to the effort of performance based activities. The efficacy of the Strategy should be centered on driving internal Tactics toward external Benefits to the customer.

In mounting an operative Plan, an assessment of customer value should be amassed to focus and prioritize the organization’s deliverables necessary to attract and retain customers. Strategy formulation must be persistently reevaluated to insure it is aligned with the emerging needs of customers and is incessantly placing the organization in a position of competitive advantage.

The Performance Plus key to success is in the implementation of your plan. Objectives and initiatives must be set with accountabilities and timelines. Integration of Tactical plans is the crucial element to the Plan’s overall success.

Let’s take a look at the three structural elements of the Plan: Vision, Strategy, and Tactics.

The Plan

Vision

The facades of Vision and Mission have become central thespians in the false piety we are accustomed to these days. But courageous principled Leaders sustain the practice of these tools to powerfully direct and stimulate their organizations. A vibrant Vision of the company clearly and precisely affords an understanding of what your business is all about. Establishing the elementary principles of how you are going to accomplish your Vision defines the Values of the organization. Without Values in place, the company is unable to induce clear and directional decisions based on the long-term prosperity. For the Plan to flourish, Leaders must be prepared to become walking, talking exemplifications of the company’s Vision and Values.

Building on the Values of the organization, a Leader should proceed to composing a Mission Statement. The Mission Statement’s resolve is to provide a directional beacon that shapes and guides business Strategies. Through an efficient definition of the Mission, Leadership is enabled to determine the Unifying Goals which inevitably bring strategic factions together in a comprehensive progressive resolution.

The development of Visions, Values, and Missions, provides the organization with a Strategy compendium from which to create a performance based organization that creates Value for the company, its employees and customers.

The Vision

Strategy

A Street Smart Leader understands the prominence of “Culture” in satiating the customer and he is resolved in shaping the values, beliefs, philosophies and understandings of his team. Therefore, he must create a performance based program which surpasses slogans and converts his values to a “way of life”. The goal is to lead people to not only “talk the talk” but “walk the walk”. Without the proper determinations devoted to Culture, Leadership is fighting an arduous battle in creating change. The proper Culture for a performance based organization concentrates on the human element of the business. Factors such as inspiration, enthusiasm and morale are major opportunities.

The Strategy articulates to the organization what is compulsory to accomplishing the company’s Mission. All employees in the company must fluently appreciate each Strategic Element. The Strategy should provide an interrelated concept that allows different teams and functions to accomplish collective goals together. And each Strategy should be centered in the significance of conveying incomparable Value to customers through action oriented deliverables.

A Leaders goal is to generate balance within the Strategy between short term goals and long term requirements. The Balanced Scorecard, developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton provides a focus on establishing objectives that meet the customer, financial, internal and growth perspectives. When each of these perspectives is kept in balance with the others, an organization avoids the trappings of short term gains at the risk of long term exposure

The Strategy

Tactics

Tactical Plans create the linkage between Strategy and Action. Leaders should base each strategy/tactic link or initiative on a “cause and effect” relationship to gain root level sustainability. With this structure mindset Leaders are able to methodically disaggregate each strategy with a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and create the building blocks for successful strategy implementation.

The execution of Tactical Plans should next be plotted and reviewed to insure cross-functional alignment exist between organizational factions. Most importantly, Accountability must be driven into the plan through assigned responsibility and timeline stipulation.

“What gets measured gets done”. A key to the development of a thriving Plan is in deciding what to measure and how to measure it. Once the proper metrics are determined, they must be communicated to everyone in the organization and a meaningful review process should be established as a tool for Leadership to monitor the Plan’s progress.

The Tactics

THE PLATFORM

The most ingenious Plans are doomed to catastrophe if they are not bed-rocked on a solid Platform which supports the fluid implementation and sustainability of Strategic Initiatives. Without a solid Platform day-to-day operations become sluggish, ineffectual, and impotent leaving a diluted and discombobulated workforce struggling to perform. Any attempt to build a high performing organization must be predicated on a fundamentally stable and flexible network of interconnected systems which provide sustenance to the strategic drivers.

Leaders committed to building superior performance based organizations dedicate energies to systemize their customer offerings. This is best accomplished in preparing an integrated methodology that drives a prolific deliverable Platform. All the Mission, Values, Strategies, and Process elements will not achieve a dynamic organization without each of these components functioning in tandem with each other. The implementation of a Strategic Platform is the most impregnable method to establishing a framework for an integrated solution.

The relationship between the cross functions of your organization must be analyzed and investigated in developing an integrated framework. Department Silos must be torn down and barriers to the synergistic workflow and common interest eliminated through a restructuring of the organization to meet strategic goals.

Beyond mere organizational charts, the Platform also includes technologies and policies that affect the daily interaction of employees and the manner in which they accomplish assignments. A Street Smart Leader reviews the organizational structure, technologies, and policies to ensure alignment and provide an infrastructure capable of supporting the Strategic Implementation.

A reliable, productive, and enduring Platform is based on the elements of Structure, Technology, and Policy.

The Platform

Structure

Structure is made up of the networks of people, physical facilities and resources that support the delivery of customer value. This is where most expenditure in performing organizations takes place. The development of the structure must be carefully planned along with other strategies. A structure built with solid principles set in the Values and Missions from the Leadership is a main ingredient in establishing the performance based Culture.

Leaders must generate an integrated approach to performance by building the Structure as an important entity within the organization. A powerfully concentric Structure provides an organization with a resilient competitive advantage. An enlightened Structure is built around essential customer fulfillment and is capable of quickly reacts to changing marketplace demands. It also increases the company’s growth and profit prospects by capitalizing on existing potential and creating new business revenue sources.

A Leader committed to maintaining margins while providing customer value must take careful steps to insure the Structure is an efficient and effective organism. He must implement a program that is suitable to the needs of customers and at the same time create a highly flexible Structure capable of dealing with any economic shift or new customer demand. A poorly managed infrastructure that is haphazardly providing costly service can drain company profits and threaten the competition position.

The Structure

Technology

Technology is no longer the differentiator we once depended on. Available to everyone at a relative cost it has become a commodity in the business world. In most fragmented industries, major systems development for the delivery of services does not exist and few independent solutions have developed, leaving these industries highly dependent on people skills to get the job done.

This, however, does not mean that technology does not play an important role in the accomplishment of improved productivity and customer value. Rather the alignment of business systems with people systems becomes a key integration opportunity.

An effective Platform drives coordination from your back end systems, PC applications, processes, and people skills into a productive and value drive solution by taking the pieces apart and putting them back together in an innovative order. Leaders deficient of substantial gains in this area are forced into having their employees working “for the technology” instead of towards the attainment of company goals.

The Technology

Policy

An effective Leader apprehends the importance of setting pure unswerving policies and compulsory standards which can be easily understood and communicated to his teams. The establishment of policies and standards provides the organization with touchstones reinforcing the organizations Mission and Goals.

The performance based organization must stretch beyond internal processes when striving to improve productivity and quality. Improvement on the service front is only truly defined and measured by the customer. Policies and standards should be based on customer fulfillment criteria.

Your teams must understand the correct path to be taken in ambiguous situations where the rules are not exact. Policies are the “glue” which keeps a Leader connected to the needs of his customers, employees, and shareholders. They require serious thought and deployed properly, set the stage for Next Level Accountability.

The Policy

The creation of an unconquerable Plan and an unshakeable Platform are the foundations for a Performance Organization. Leaders who possess the insight to develop and implement these key architectural elements provide their organizations with unsurpassed competitive advantages. Not only do they strengthen their product and service offerings but they build an environment where A-Players excel in their pursuits. Our recent challenging economic times have resulted in the “shelving” of Strategic Plans and has left many Platforms tired, ragged and in need of an overhaul. Leaders are confronted with rebuilding these foundations through unstable and unpredictable times ahead. A Street Smart Leader will devise methods to beat the competition off the line by not waiting for the economic turn. He will innovatively exploit the scarce resources available and initiate the rebuilding process now!

(This is the Introduction of a three part series on the Performance Plus Planning System which focuses on the Four P’s – Plan, Platform, Process, People, to create synergistic accountable organizations.)

As a young manager, I engulfed every business book I could amass with a voracious appetite. I was determined to master my craft and ascertain knowledge at a rate outpacing

my years. The gurus of the time fascinated my interest and fostered my ambition. I envisaged the day when I would be able to mark major initiatives, beyond my localized teams, with the concepts of strategy, marketing, customer service, and organizational structures which enthralled me. As my roles expanded and my responsibilities grew into executive management realms, I eventually realized my place at the table where guiding and driving decisions about the company were formulated. As a Leader, it was now my duty to construct the essential decisions which would shape our future.

Consultants often brought with them abundant theories to be deployed for the improvement of our business issues. But over time, I came to rely more on my direct experience as a “business operator” to increase performance through specific and actionable plans followed up with impactful execution. In developing overall strategies it became vital to set foundations, implement strategies and systems and then train management teams to become effective directors of these programs ensuring short term challenges were met while setting the building blocks for the long term vision.

Through the years, I developed my own methods of organizational architecture for building stronger, more robust, more results driven companies. With each success these systems evolved into a comprehensive architectural planning program for the development of a synergistic business unit. The result is a Planning Tool I have dubbed Performance Plus which strives to drive Next Level Accountability through the development of the “Four P’s” –Plan, Platform, Process, and People.

Integrated Organizational Architecture

PERFORMANCE PLUS – Performance Based Service Organization

The Performance Plus Model strives to build a Performance Based Organization as the preeminent defense against competition. Nothing else can realize long-term growth and profits in the way a steadfast relationship with customers can. Inventions and technological advancements are quickly tracked by the competition. Lower costs are a never-ending duel constantly being pursued in the marketplace. Superior marketing efforts will not compensate for inferior products that are not supported at every turn. Even new product development becomes yesterday’s news and fails alone to “attract” a customer following over the long term.

As a Leader you must mold your organization to deliver the highest quality products bundled with incomparable customer quality if you are to position your company for permanency and prosperity. Performance based service can become the “make or break” component for any industry. For the company that excels at fulfilling the requirements of its customers, customer satisfaction becomes an offensive weapon allowing the organization to define the industry standards and their place in it. The Leader that decides to sit back and wait for the game to be defined by the competition and then follow minimum expectations is assuming a dangerous and vulnerable position.

Ron Zemke, co-author of Service America, states “extensive research leads to the obvious conclusion that those organizations willing to commit to superior customer service, profit on the bottom line. Those unwilling or unable to meet that standard do not and will not thrive – and possibly may not even survive.” Therefore the question becomes not one of whether a Company should strive for service excellence but how to properly go about it.

Planning and prioritizing – setting strategic and tactical plans – understanding the characteristics and elements of performance based service – implementing strategy with employee support – timing and available resources – These and many more are the decisions that need to be carefully planned and implemented by Leaders. It is an ongoing tough challenge in which a company’s culture must be able to undergo necessary transformations.

Many Leaders understand the powerful impact of performance based service to the overall quality effort of providing the customer with a Total Value Proposition. Tomorrow’s successful organizations must tear down the distinction between product quality and service support. Strong Leaders will integrate these concepts into a homogeneous organization focused on the customer while meeting corporate objectives.

TODAY’S ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGE

Leaders are facing a turning point in organizational development. As industries emerges from the severe recessionary impact of the last few years pressure will be placed on organization to deliver higher volumes of sales at lower margins on the product. It is necessary for the models that have existed for years to change if they are to survive.

Over the last several years customer knowledge of the supplier process has improved, placing further pressures on the supplier for higher levels of performance while at the same time expecting the best pricing the market will bear. Clients are becoming less attached to product standards and shifting towards decisions that provide perceived value at the moment of purchase.

Leaders must compete in a future environment of driving volume, reducing margins and providing excellent customer service. The following organizational capabilities must become core competencies in developing the model of the service driven company of the future.

Ability to power Growth and Profit.

Creation of a plan clearly identifying to all employees where the company is going and how it will get there.

Balance in the planning process to ensure short and long term goals are accounted for.

Cause and effect methodology that will take the strategy past the “talk” and into action mode.

Leaders must build a program which founds a synergistic connection integrating an organization’s Plan, Platform, Process, and People. Programs focused on creating vision and accountability through significant cross-functional results will determine today’s competitive advantage.

The lack of success in the implementation of performance based service architecture is often in moving forward without a plan for the introduction and integration of each step. Leaders often get excited and rush forward in a ready, fire, aim manner. The strategy must been seen as a complete effort. If viewed as a set of individual tasks, gaps appear in the system through which customer’s needs, productivity and employee satisfaction fall. If goals are disjointed in the organization, internal workings become confused and departments fail to understand the entire picture. The focus must persist on the overall goals and refrain from the mentality of task specialization for efficiency.

Many improvement programs have yielded disappointing results due to fragmentation or focus on achieving specific economic outcomes without a linkage to the organization’s overall strategy. Breakthroughs in performance require major change in the measurement and management systems used by an organization. Being more competitive and capability driven cannot be accomplished by merely monitoring measures of past performance.

Leader’s ability to move employees towards working together in harmony ensures customer quality is delivered, shareholder return is maximized and employee satisfaction continually rises all at the same time. The achievement of this balance propels organizations towards lasting performance and the ability to reach the “next level” of success.

Performance Plus System

It is Time for Leaders to unshackle the survival mode of the last few years and begin to aggressively embark on developing the Strategic Strategies that will propel their growth and profitability forward in the next economy. When building an organization for competitive effectiveness a Leader must focus on Plan, Platform, Process, and People. Each of these structural cornerstones must be properly planned, integrated and implemented if a company is to be successful in both the short and long run. Today’s Leader must be capable of dealing with the immediate needs of his business’ survivability while constantly working towards the “big picture” strategies of tomorrow that will insure stable, replicable performance. A Street Smart Leader knows when the Four P’s emanate to generate a holistic, result driven accountable business model, many other P’s spring forth such as Profitability, Prosperity, Popularity and Perseverance!